


passion and pride

by dreamland16



Category: Men’s Football RPF
Genre: England National Team, M/M, Multi, Wales National Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26856025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamland16/pseuds/dreamland16
Summary: set after england v wales at the 2016 euros
Relationships: Aaron Ramsey/Ben Davies, Aaron Ramsey/Ben Davies/Gareth Bale, Aaron Ramsey/Gareth Bale, Ben Davies/Gareth Bale, Dele Alli/Eric Dier
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> always thinking about it x

when the england boys get back to the hotel after the game, the spurs lads are walking in together when rosey says,

“ben’s different isn’t he, when he’s with them”

“course he is”

“i knew it would be different playing against him, but i dunno, he seemed different”

“it’s ramsey and bale” dele chimes in.  
“they’re a bad influence”

harry scoffs “they’re not that bad”

“ramsey was starting on me all game! and eric!”

“they were only giving back what we were throwing at them” eric says calmly.

“you saying you enjoyed being pushed around by them?” dele says, raising his eyebrows at eric.

“no dele, that’s not what i’m saying.” eric says, giving him a little shove.

“touchy” dele mutters.

“alright you two” harry says, stepping in between them.

“it’s alright h. i’m not gonna get physical with him, he’d rather that was ramsey. or is bale more your type?”

“oh piss off”

“i mean it dele, give it a rest” harry says. and that’s his serious voice. so dele knows he’s going too far.

he shifts awkwardly and then says, “sorry h, sorry eric. it’s the adrenaline” he shrugs.

harry nods and looks at eric.

eric shrugs too and mutters, “it’s okay”

dele can’t help smirking a little.

eric rolls his eyes at him.

“shall we text ben?” rosey says.

“we?” eric says.

“well, one of us” rosey says, looking at eric.

harry looks at him and then at the others when they start looking at him one by one.

“oh i get it” harry laughs. “fine”

“what are you gonna say?” walks says.

harry takes his phone out and says,

“uhhh. hey mate, know this probably won’t mean much but we just wanted you to know that you played a good game and it was good to see you. have a safe journey back and all the best for the rest of the tournament”

“that’s good, h” dele smiles.

“well, it’s all true. hope he doesn’t take it too hard”

“they’re a close squad, i’m sure they’ve all got each other’s backs”

“yeah” rosey agrees.

“right, we can relax for a bit and then meet up for dinner in a couple of hours. alright?” harry says, looking at each of them.

they all agree and then split off into their own directions.

dele and eric head upstairs and when they get into their room eric drops his bag on the floor and turns to dele with an expectant look on his face.

“you gonna tell me what all that was about?” he says when dele turns to face him.

“i’m sorry,” dele sighs. “i just like teasing you. i know i went a bit too far in front of the others, so i’m sorry. are we okay?”

“yeah, we’re fine.” eric says, sighing heavily. “just reign it in a bit yeah?”

“yeah,” dele says, stepping towards eric.

“if you wanted to make it up to me, i’d be alright with that” eric smiles.

“mhmm” dele hums, kissing at eric’s neck and pulling him back towards the bed.

once dele finally gets eric on his back and he’s half laying on top of him, lazily kissing him, he mutters a swear word when eric’s phone starts ringing and he reaches to get it.

“oh, it’s stonesy” eric says. then he picks up and says, “hello mate," he doesn't take his eyes off of dele as he moves off the bed.

dele rolls onto his back and stares at the ceiling.

"yeah, yeah, we were just- resting." eric says. he smiles fondly at dele and then sighs and tips his head back, snapping "shut up. we’ll be down in a minute” 

he hangs up and throws his phone onto the bed, crawling back to dele.

“we’re needed downstairs apparently” he says with a kiss.

“what for?” dele asks, chasing him.

“i don’t know, group bonding or something” eric shrugs

"i don't wanna go, i wanna stay here. wanna keep doing this" dele says, grinning as he slides his hands under eric’s shirt.

"mhmm-yeah-aah but if we don't go it's gonna look bad. we could just go down for a bit?" eric tries, pushing his nose against dele’s cheek before kissing him.

dele gets lost in it for a second until eric pulls away and looks at him, expecting a response. 

dele sighs, all over-exaggerated like a child. "fine, but we're finishing this later." he says, wrapping a hand around eric’s bicep for good measure.

"can’t get enough can you delboy?" eric laughs, hand coming to meet dele's. "come on, if you want we can shower when we come back up?”

dele wants.


	2. Chapter 2

and bale just, he can’t believe it. they were seconds away from having them! or at least holding them to a draw... he snaps out of it quickly though, because this isn’t just about them.

“come on,” he calls out. “come on, it’s alright” he says, gesturing for the rest of the boys to come to him.

they huddle in front of the wales fans, knowing this isn’t the end. aaron’s next to bale and he rests his hand on bale’s hip, taking advantage of where his shirt has tucked up a bit. and for that moment, bale is okay.

when they finally make it onto the plane back to brittany, he’s decided he wants some time alone. he puts his bag in the seat next to him and hopes no one will question it.

but then aaron appears next to him and just says, “really?”

bale doesn’t know what to say.

aaron sighs and keeps walking further down the plane until he sees chris.

“oh mate,” he says, standing next to him. “wardy‘s back there bragging about beating you at table tennis”

“what?” chris says, looking back towards where wardy is sat.

“yeah i dunno, thought it was a bit weird” aaron shrugs.

“i’m not having that” chris says, grabbing his stuff and storming off to have it out with wardy.

aaron laughs and puts his stuff away before taking a seat.

ben’s walking onto the plane when his phone buzzes. he thinks about ignoring it for a second, and then the guilt sets in. he sighs and retrieves it from his pocket, can’t help but smile when he sees it’s h.

he reads the text and sends a quick response of,

thank you h, that does mean a lot. was lovely to see you and the boys too, all the best to you as well. take care x

he puts his phone back in his pocket and looks up to see bale. he doesn’t usually sit at the back, and he also doesn’t usually sit alone, but this time he’s got his bag in the seat next to him making sure he stays that way. ben shakes his head slightly but decides it’s best to leave it. he keeps walking until he gets to wardy and- chris?

“oh” he says, genuinely surprised.

“i think someone wanted your attention mate” chris says, nodding his head towards aaron’s seat a few rows ahead.

ben looks up and aaron quickly turns back around.

“right” he says.

“see you later then mate” ben says turning back to wardy and smiling.

“yeah, have fun” wardy says.

ben rolls his eyes as they laugh.

he heads towards aaron and kicks at his feet when he gets to him.

aaron looks up and smiles brightly at him.

“move then” ben says.

aaron leans to the side to give him room to get into the window seat.

ben sits down heavily and aaron tries to keep a straight face while he waits for him to say something.

“i suppose i should be thankful i at least get the window seat”

“not sitting next to wardy mate?” aaron says.

ben practically gives him a death glare.

“chris is in my seat. i know you know that.”

“dunno what you’re talking about mate” aaron grins. chuffed with himself, he is.

“you’re in a good mood” ben says, trying to dig something out of his bag before giving up and putting it on the floor.

aaron sighs.

“not really, but it doesn’t do anyone any good for me to take it out on them.”

ben’s face softens as he looks at aaron.

“that’s really mature”

aaron laughs quietly.

“i can be mature you know. i just wish he saw it that way too” he says, turning back to look at bale.

ben does the same and says, “i’d have thought he’d want one of us there”

“me too” aaron says, turning back. “he’ll be alright, you know him. he’s just gonna beat himself up a bit first”

ben sighs.

aaron takes his hoodie off and drapes it over his lap.

ben’s eyes widen in surprise and he leans over to practically hiss in aaron’s ear, 

“no way am i touching you here, we almost got caught last time!”

aaron grins and rests his head back on the seat as he turns to look at him,

“babe, i just want to hold your hand” 

ben breathes a sigh of relief and reluctantly reaches for aaron’s hand under the hoodie. he then covers his arm with his own hoodie.

“thank you” aaron whispers.

ben rolls his eyes and settles into his seat.

the next time aaron looks over at him he’s asleep, or at least pretending to be, and the way he looks? aaron’s not disturbing him for nothing.

aaron takes his phone out of his pocket and tries to discretely take a picture of him and ben. he sends it to bale with the caption:

wish you were here.

and then he sends:

don’t show ben that, he’ll kill me.

when he turns to look back at bale he’s at least laughing quietly at his phone.

he looks up and they make eye contact.

aaron breathes out slowly and hopes bale knows what he wants to say to him. thinks he probably does.

bale gives him a small smile and aaron thinks, that’ll do.

he turns back towards the front of the plane and adjusts his grip on ben’s hand.

when they’re finally back at the hotel, it feels like it’s been days since the match. and also like no time has passed at all.

they all choose to get the briefing out of the way there and then and it goes- about as well as can be expected. everyone’s deflated, but together. 

they reach a consensus that england’s first goal was onside, but they’re still not happy about it. 

when they’re done going through everything they break off to do their own thing before dinner. ben, aaron and bale head upstairs.

once they’re in their room bale takes his shoes off and climbs onto the bed that they don’t usually use. aaron and ben share a look before aaron sits down on the bed they do usually use.

when no one’s said anything for ages and bale’s just been sighing, aaron finally says “come on then, out with it”

“what? i don’t know what to say” bale shrugs.

“just say whatever then, don’t leave it in there” aaron says, pointing at bale’s head.

bale sighs heavily and says,

“feel like it’s my fault”

“we’re a team. we’re in this together.” ben says, looking up from his bag that’s he’s been unpacking.

“yeah but if i hadn’t of said all that stuff before the game-“

“were you lying?” ben says, dropping his toiletry bag on the bed and walking over to stand in front of bale.

“what?” bale says, looking up at him.

“when you said all of that stuff, about the passion, about the pride, about why we’re doing this. were you lying?”

bale sits up and swallows hard.

“no,” he says, shaking his head. “i wasn’t lying”

“i know that. you know that.” ben says, turning around to look at aaron. “aaron do you know that?”

aaron smiles and nods.

“yeah i know that”

ben turns back to look at bale.

“the rest of the team and the fans know it too. so who else is there?” he say, crossing his arms.

bale looks at aaron.

“don’t look at me,” aaron laughs. “i don’t know how he does it either”

“you’re right.” bale says, looking back at ben and reaching out to put his hands on ben’s hips. “i’m sorry i was off with you both, i just-“

“yeah, we know.” ben says, holding bale’s hands. “aaron, do we know?”

“we know” aaron grins.

bale looks between them and laughs.

“i’m really lucky to have you two”

“and don’t you forget it” ben says, turning towards the bathroom.

“you showering?” bale asks, voice hopeful.

“yeah, need to relieve the stress” he calls over his shoulder.

“oh, hang on...” bale says, looking at aaron. “should we?”

“yeah, we should” aaron says as they both get up and head towards the bathroom.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!


End file.
